I have played. I can see how people view it as War, but it's definitely not the same vibe I got from Classic TBC and even WOTLK.
A lot of its in the music. When you load the game up and hear the drums of war and violent music, versus Pandaria where you hear like mist sparkles or some shit like that. The art direction too mostly. TBC and Wrath were full of skulls, spikes, demonds, undead, gnarly looking things. Where Pandaria is soft at heart, and fluffy on the outside, sugar coated with G rated sprinkles.

I should've phrased it better. There certainly is a War vibe to MOP, but it's not the same to me or as dirty as it was in previous Xpacs.

Ditry? Tell me exaclty what was dirtier than this? Fighing Sha and suddenly your screen blacks out while you hear your character scream? Defusing spike bombs? Imagine what would that do if it exploded on your face. The fucking Klaxxi that would not think twice before they shred you to pieces if you even thought of crossing them. I'm sorry but MoP gives the only feel of War that will ever comes close to the RTS games.

It's really pathetic to see people try their hardest to bash MoP to the ground.

In the beginning, Vanilla WoW took us to level 60; Not level 50 or 55. It was precisely 60. And then, the next two expansions increased the cap to 70 and then 80. This tells me a few things. Originally, they probably had a very rough outline of how things would unfold up to level 100. It is a very good possibility that they "originally" expected to take the story to only level 100.

And then, at the height of their subscription base, they made the decision to start doing 5 level increments per expansion. If 100 "was" only a number, then why the change at this point? I think they thought that WoW could be expanded, but still planned for the 100 level mark to finish the underlying main story.

Now, here we are 8 years later. Wow is still going strong. At some point along the way, level 100 in fact did become just another number. Because there is no way any company is going to throw away the kind of money that WoW is still accumulating. So, the question becomes, will the main story still be resolved at the level 100 mark?

I see two scenarios playing out that depends solely on subscription numbers:

A: The numbers stay strong and they continue to add content while putting off the completion of the main story line; This obviously takes us well past the 100 mark.

B: The subscriber numbers continue to dwindle for one reason or another, and they decide to go out with a bang. This scenario concludes the main story line much more quickly. But still, that won't be the end of content expansions. There will be more until it's not financially feasible.

Next expansion will be Old Gods or Legion, my bet is on the Old Gods. (I know that there are many references to Legion expansion, but i have feeling that it'll take a while for demons to attack again.) But if Legion won't be next expansion, it'll surely be the next.

One big problem with that: It's a stupid way to develop a game that is, by it's nature, open ended. There is no "main storyline" to WoW. Each expansion has had it's own, self contained, storyline that at best had vague connections to the others. Vanilla didn't have one at all. Therefore, they cannot "finish" the main storyline, since there is no main storyline to finish.

Blizzard might have had a very, very rough idea of where they wanted to take the game. They probably didn't bother to affix any numbers to it, though, because there'd be no point. They also hadn't originally planned to do MoP at all and had for a time even considered adding pandaren in BC. They probably never even thought about whether the game should "end" with level 100.

I can tell you why they went with 5 levels in Cata and MoP, though: Because there's just not enough new stuff to give the classes left. Some classes already have trouble fitting everything on their bars. Why have 10 levels when you only get 1 new ability?

One big problem with that: It's a stupid way to develop a game that is, by it's nature, open ended. There is no "main storyline" to WoW. Each expansion has had it's own, self contained, storyline that at best had vague connections to the others. Vanilla didn't have one at all. Therefore, they cannot "finish" the main storyline, since there is no main storyline to finish.

Blizzard might have had a very, very rough idea of where they wanted to take the game. They probably didn't bother to affix any numbers to it, though, because there'd be no point. They also hadn't originally planned to do MoP at all and had for a time even considered adding pandaren in BC. They probably never even thought about whether the game should "end" with level 100.

I can tell you why they went with 5 levels in Cata and MoP, though: Because there's just not enough new stuff to give the classes left. Some classes already have trouble fitting everything on their bars. Why have 10 levels when you only get 1 new ability?

Yeah, I disagree with every single thing you wrote here.

No main storyline? Sargeras? Titans? Old Gods? Everything is interconnected. All roads lead to us facing Sargeras. That will be the end of the main storyline.

Blizzard Exec 1: "Wow I'm surprised that we've reached level 100, and defeated the burning legion again, and yet we still have 5 million subscribers, pouring billions of dollars a year into our pockets."

Blizzard Exec 2: "Yeah it sure is a shame that making sure the level cap doesn't go beyond 100 is so damn important, those billions of dollars sure would be nice, but we have an ethical obligation to alienate millions of customers and flush billions of dollars down the drain just so we don't exceed the number 100, which is sacred."

Yes. Which is a part of the WarCraft universe. The "main" storyline encompasses the entire universe. It regularly intersects with the various independent stories we see in WoW, but it isn't itself part of the game.

Not really. Not at all actually. Warlocks getting some love has to do with their class being one of the least played in the game; warlocks are a lot of fun though and always have been but I guess they miss their mark with the average player.

Besides, we all know it's going to be a Virmen-based expansion.

You didn't read the Wrathion quest text nor did you listen to him, did you?
Or watch the green comets (hello Abyssals) crushing the little Azeroth he projected.

Leftcoast 2 blocks from the beach, down the street from a green haze called Venice.

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Originally Posted by Syatek94

First I've heard of this. Very good observation, seems likely.

Azshara and Old Gods to 95.
Burning Legion to 100.

End game. Makes sense to me.
As for people saying 100 is just a number and Blizzard will go past it, I disagree.
Sargeras has kind of always been advertised as the Final Endgame Boss.

Finish up MOP, 2 more expacs, adds what, up to 5-6 years of WOW?
The game has to come to an end some time. Even if a ton of people are still playing.

I think Blizzard will want to end WOW to make room for their next gen MMO, Titan.

I would say they will maintain WOW indefinitely but the next two Expansions will finish the progressed main Story of Warcraft to it's final end. But as Starcraft has taught us Blizzard will update and maintain a game for ten years even after they released the final expansion. This means that While they plan to roll out 2 more expansions and a new MMO they have a strategy that will keep WOW up until 2025 Which will be 10 years after the final expansion and Twenty years after it's release, and 32 years since the birth of the Warcraft Video game franchise. Remember November 1994 was the Release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, that was 18 3/12 years ago. Hell they better have a twenty years of Warcraft Party in 2014.

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 02:01 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Mormolyce

I love Pandaren... and Pandaren are the no 1 most requested new race since Vanilla so I don't think I'm alone. They ARE Warcraft. You're the one who doesn't understand what Warcraft is.

No actual order people want all of these
Dragons
Alliance High Elves/Half-Elves
Ogres/Half-ogres
Pandaren
Naga <-a hardcore group of naga fanboys out there and for the last 8 years they have not listened to reason.
Cenarius's children/Centaurs

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 02:27 AM ----------

Originally Posted by huth

There is a storyline to WarCraft. There is none to WoW.

Same storyline for both, in the end it is the Burning Legion that sent the Orcs (WC:O&H), it was the Legion which invaded in the ancient past and in the third war (WC3), it was the Legion which created the Undeath plague (WC3FT). With the books and other games during the in between times they flushed out personal stories and histories of their main Characters, and the overall world lore. All these things went into Vanilla WOW, and it is the base on which all the Story lines can be anchored. You learned about the Titans, the Old Gods, and the history of the Burning Legion. You faced cultists and servants of the legion and the old gods. The raids set up every expansion we have had. MC, Spire and Ony were aimed for Cataclysm, Naxx, AQ aimed us at Wrath. the Troll raids gave clues being found out now. And basic Questing gave us the clue BC was coming.

Seems to me that the Guys at Blizzard have an Outline of basic story content they want to cover, sure they put in new stuff all the time but they also have an over arcing story about the Heroes of Azeroth Defeating the greatest Evil of all.

Think they said they were taking this expansion off... so I reckon we'll see them in a couple of years.... till then they are gonna snark about this expansion

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 05:02 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Syatek94

I have played. I can see how people view it as War, but it's definitely not the same vibe I got from Classic TBC and even WOTLK.
A lot of its in the music. When you load the game up and hear the drums of war and violent music, versus Pandaria where you hear like mist sparkles or some shit like that. The art direction too mostly. TBC and Wrath were full of skulls, spikes, demonds, undead, gnarly looking things. Where Pandaria is soft at heart, and fluffy on the outside, sugar coated with G rated sprinkles.

I should've phrased it better. There certainly is a War vibe to MOP, but it's not the same to me or as dirty as it was in previous Xpacs.

guess you missed the murderous rage in Dalaran... but thats ok... we'll miss ya this expansion..

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 05:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Syctris

Blizzard stated at some point max level would be 100 then they were done, so probably 2 more expansions. Next one will be burning legion for sure I think though.

Yes yes, and Sony said that Everquest would never go over 60... that was um... 10 years ago... they've been pumping out expansions since 99 and their level cap is um... 95 now... and Wow is infinitely more popular than Everquest.

---------- Post added 2013-01-09 at 05:06 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Chickat

I hope not,but its very possible. Wrath was hinted at in vanilla. cata in bc, and i suppose mop was a suprise, but if they go back to hinting 2 expansions ahead of time we may see the legion for 7.0 instead of 6.0. What was hinted at in cata? Azshara and old gods my friend... Azshara and old gods.

Mop was hinted at in Vanilla... Chen was wandering about back in vanilla days.

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Probably gonna be either an Old God expansion or a Burning Legion expansion - I kinda thing the next expac will have us dealing with Kil'Jaedan (permanently), as well as opening some large windows into the Titans and their whereabouts. I'm guessing we won't meet Sargeras and the Titans until we have to deal with N'zoth.

End game. Makes sense to me.
As for people saying 100 is just a number and Blizzard will go past it, I disagree.
Sargeras has kind of always been advertised as the Final Endgame Boss.

Finish up MOP, 2 more expacs, adds what, up to 5-6 years of WOW?
The game has to come to an end some time. Even if a ton of people are still playing.

I think Blizzard will want to end WOW to make room for their next gen MMO, Titan.

I suspect you have it backwards... game studios like Blizzard can and do run multiple successful games. Blizzard will not end Wow just to shuffle folks into Titan.

--- Want any of my Constitutional rights?, ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕI come from a time and a place where I judge people by the content of their character; I don't give a damn if you are tall or short; gay or straight; Jew or Gentile; White, Black, Brown or Green; Conservative or Liberal. -- Note to mods: if you are going to infract me have the decency to post the reason, and expect to hold everyone else to the same standard.

Blizzard stated at some point max level would be 100 then they were done, so probably 2 more expansions. Next one will be burning legion for sure I think though.

There are too many stories left to wrap up in 2 expansions. Unless they finish them up in books like they (supposedly) did the the Emerald Dream, or have a WoW2 or Warcraft 4 planned I don't think we are stopping at 100. (We may stop gaining levels like we do now though, never know)

OT.
I think the next one will be about the Burning Legion

I wouldn't mind The Emerald Dream or Azshara though. I think the Old God's and Titan's stories will continue to be a running side thing going on in the background.